Sentences
by Madhumalati
Summary: 50word challenge for Hiei and Kurama. Sixth set: Blossomwitch's prompts. ‘At least it’s not pink, like that ghastly thing you used to wear…would you shut up?’
1. Chapter 1

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**_50words challenge: _**

**_Fandom: _**Yu Yu Hakusho****

**_Pairing:_** Hiei x Kurama****

A/N: If it's not too much trouble, could you please list your favourites in your review (if you choose to review – I'm not a review Nazi) and why you like them? It's useful for later chapters. I intend to finish all five sets, so check back later if you like it. Thanks!

**_#1 Air: _**

Kurama adopted a faintly martyred air when Hiei shoved his clothes into his laundry hamper, but made no comment about Hiei walking around dressed in only a pair of his old slacks while they were being washed – that being the point of allowing Hiei to sponge off his washing machine, after all.

**_#2 Apples: _**

Apples reminded him of Kurama; shiny red on the outside, crisp white on the inside, and…Hiei wondered exactly when he'd begun thinking in idiotic colour metaphors.

**_#3 Beginning: _**

They had been irreparably torn apart by the heist and its aftermath, Kurama knew, and when he and Hiei set out to rebuild their partnership and friendship in the years after that, they did so while thinking of it as a new beginning rather than a reconstruction, for that would have failed.

**_#4 Bugs: _**

Koenma was the first to find out about them, obviously, because of the extensive spy system focused on his (less nobly motivated) detectives – he sincerely regretted doing so later, when he found that a mysterious attack of poisonous pollen had destroyed his entire videotape archive of the past three weeks.

**_#5 Coffee: _**

Kurama took his coffee black, and Hiei with a mind-boggling pile of sugar; obviously, they never managed to convert the other.

**_#6 Dark: _**

Darkness suited Kurama; despite his flame hair and his white clothing, he could melt into the shadows – and Hiei, who felt he did not belong in the light, was happier for the companionship.

**_#7 Despair: _**

He despaired of ever understanding Kurama, but that didn't stop him from trying.

**_#8 Door: _**

'It wouldn't hurt you to use the door for once,' Kurama told him with fond exasperation, and Hiei didn't bother to answer; the house was a stranger's, but Kurama's room was his alone, and that was where he wanted to be.

**_#9 Drink: _**

'Just shut up and drink it,' Hiei snapped, and Kurama obediently drained the cup of medicine, and reflected with weary amusement that all his research into poisons and cures in Hiei's presence had had a rather unexpected effect.

**_#10 Duty: _**

He regarded his protection of Yukina as a sacred duty, and he would have given his life for her without hesitation, for his ethics demanded it; it was deeply unsettling to find himself caring for Kurama with the same depth, but with only emotion to justify it.

**_#11 Earth: _**

'No, Hiei, I'm not bored enough yet to try taking over the world again…I can lend you a book if you like.'

**_#12 End: _**

He found himself remembering Kurama as Shigure's sword carved through him, the boy, earnest and determined; the teenager, treacherous and beautiful; the youkai, pale and deadly – it seemed appropriate to end it with that thought.

**_#13 Fall: _**

Hiei would have thought that Kurama, who loved plants so, would hate fall, but when he asked, Kurama shook his head and replied that there was a difference between change and death, even if Hiei didn't understand it yet.

**_#14 Fire: _**

Hiei's skin burned when he was injured – an unconscious defence, Kurama thought, because when he became aware of Kurama's presence, he turned the temperature down rather sheepishly.

**_#15 Flexible: _**

Mukuro listened in hidden amusement as Hiei outlined why he should be allowed to continue his duties on the border, be given more flexible hours and be allowed to recruit whom he pleased, all without mentioning Kurama (who was, she knew, the main reason).

**_#16 Flying: _**

He watched Shigure's circular sword fly at Kurama as if it had a life of its own, and it was the worst sort of déjà vu for him as he saw Kurama place pride over life again, refusing to adopt his true form in a fight to the death.

**_#17 Food: _**

The offering of food and shelter meant much more to youkai; more than a simple courtesy, it was an overture of friendship, an extension of trust, a permanent bond only close friends or family were allowed; when Kurama healed him and took care of him, Hiei put it down to the conditioning he had undergone in the human world, which took such things casually, never realising that Kurama was, in fact, saying precisely those things.

**_#18 Foot: _**

Hiei had ticklish feet, something Kurama discovered by accident, and which he exploited ruthlessly.

**_#19 Grave: _**

For centuries after Shiori's death, Kurama returned to her grave to pay his respects, and Hiei came with him to a world he hated, if only to thank the woman who had unwittingly given him a second shot at life.

**_#20 Green: _**

'It was why I chose these foreign colours for my hair and eyes, you know,' Kurama said dreamily, 'Red for my blood, alien blood, and green for my eyes for the power I wield…' Hiei snorted and said, 'Red suits you better.'

**_#21 Head: _**

It wasn't until Hiei abruptly became head of Mukuro's army that he realised just how much he had learned about tactics and leadership from Kurama over the years.

**_#22 Hollow: _**

He would have given anything to hollow out his heart and rip away the pain, but the happiness balanced it and made losing his emotions impossible.

**_#23 Honour: _**

Yusuke once commented that both Hiei and Kurama were very honourable; Kurama shook his head, amused, and said that there was a difference between honour and pride, and only Hiei could lay claim to the former.

**_#24 Hope: _**

It was the one thing he had never succeeded in giving Hiei, so he hoped for both of them.

**_#25 Light: _**

Hiei passed out again on the way back to Kurama's house after beating Yatsude; he lifted the youkai on his back as he'd lifted Maya, and was surprised all over again that so much will and strength could be concealed in a form so light.

**_#26 Lost: _**

Hiei did not think of himself as lost before he met Kurama – to be lost, one must have belonged, and he had never had a home before, not even in the seconds after his birth had he been held in his mother's arms.

**_#27 Metal: _**

Hiei once sneered that Kurama's whips were weak, easily ripped apart by his sword; the next time they sparred, he found his sword hissing and dripping, dissolving, and Kurama running his fingers over his whip with a satisfied smile and announcing sweetly that acid ate metal, didn't he know?

**_#28 New: _**

When Kurama needed supplies of seeds, it was Hiei who retrieved them for him from the Makai if he couldn't go there himself.

**_#29 Old: _**

The crackling silversmoke aura that enfolded Youko was ancient, familiar, alien and reborn all at once, and the contradictions in it – so like Kurama himself – were enough to make him smile; just a little, mind.

****

**_#30 Peace: _**

As calm as he appeared, there was little peace in Kurama; his aura, beneath the harsh pragmatism and overriding discipline, boiled and raged so violently that Hiei had to take great care when scanning it with his jagan, lest he be overwhelmed.

**_#31 Poison: _**

Kurama was a gentle poison, deceptive and deadly; he had come to crave him like an addict, something desired and hated.

**_#32 Pretty: _**

'You use your looks as distraction,' Hiei accused him once, and Kurama smirked and replied, 'Ah, so it's working, is it?'

**_#33 Rain: _**

They both noticed that of late, Hiei had stopped using rain as an excuse to visit Kurama, but neither mentioned it.

**_#34 Regret: _**

Kurama never tried to apologise for being responsible for Hiei's imprisonment, even though he sincerely regretted having to do it; there were some betrayals that ran too deep to be healed by simple words, and Hiei would never have accepted it.

**_#35 Roses: _**

He knew he was really turning into a sappy idiot when the colour of roses reminded him of the precise shade (so different, so much deeper) of a pair of crimson eyes, and for a whole week Hiei was puzzled by Kurama's inexplicable, gigantic snit.

**_#36 Secret: _**

He thought he had kept his feelings for Kurama a well-hidden secret, but Kurama laughed and told him it had been spilling from his eyes for years.

**_#37 Snakes: _**

Kurama had a fear of snakes that stemmed from his fox instincts, and though he never let him know, it was a while after the Dark Tournament before he could tolerate the added presence of Hiei's dragon without the animal growling in his mind.

**_#38 Snow: _**

Hiei disliked the rain, it made him short-tempered and sarcastic, but snow made him melancholic and weary; those were the dangerous times, the ones when he most needed reminding that there was a reason for his existence.

**_#39 Solid: _**

The first hint Hiei had that he might have control over his mother's ice powers as well as his father's fire was when he accidentally froze a fruit he was trying to eat at breakfast into a hard, solid ball; the look on his face was so comical that Kurama burst out laughing.

**_#40 Spring: _**

Spring was a time when Kurama came alive, prowling parks and woods by moonlight in his youkai form, delighting in the gentle rains, almost open in his joy, and Hiei never revealed that he often returned to the human world at that time just so he could witness that rare lowering of his ever-present defences.

**_#41 Stable: _**

Hiei, with his lighter weight, tested the stairs as they navigated Suzaku's dangerously wobbly maze, warning Kurama about the unstable ones on their mental link and watching with poorly hidden amusement as Yusuke and Kuwabara stumbled and cursed.

**_#42 Strange: _**

Kurama thought it strange when Hiei stopped reminding him how easily he could discard their alliance every other day, but he knew better than to question it.

**_#43 Summer: _**

Though he denied it, he always waited for Kurama's university to declare summer holidays, and whisked the kitsune away for a month or two in the Makai.

**_#44 Taboo: _**

Hiei had lived with the knowledge that he was taboo all his life – and suddenly, to be faced with…friends…who barely even noticed that fact was almost intolerably wonderful.

**_#45 Ugly: _**

He watched the detached expression on Kurama's face as they viewed Yomi's message, and even before the kitsune had decided his path, Hiei already knew the ugly truth; once again, they were going to end up on opposing sides of a battle.

**_#46 War: _**

'They're just paintballs, Hiei, there was no need to draw your sword on him!'

**_#47 Water: _**

He was ice, unforgiving, harsh, lifeless and sterile – but the thawing of that very ice freed the water that made the earth live.

**_#48 Welcome: _**

When Hiei finally returned to the human world, the greetings were varied; Yusuke gave him a bear hug (and nearly died for it), Yukina asked after his health, Shizuru gave him a lazy wave, Kuwabara made manly comments that invited sarcasm, Genkai a sharp comment on his power having increased; Kurama, silent in the back of the temple where they had gathered, simply met his eyes and nodded, and Hiei nodded back, anticipating the more private welcome that would follow.

**_#49 Winter: _**

On one of their journeys, they ran into an unexpected winter storm, and without a word Hiei took the lead; walking ahead of Kurama, the snow evaporated under his boots, leaving dry ground for slipper-clad feet to tread on as the kitsune followed.

**_#50 Wood: _**

He knew Kurama controlled plants of all descriptions, but the stiff oak headboard imprisoning his hands during sex while Kurama smirked evilly did prove something of a surprise.


	2. Chapter 2

**_#1 Walking: _**

It was a rare thing to see Kurama walking in the forest or in meadows, far away from people, to see the nearly imperceptible softening of his eyes, and the pleasure with which he trailed gentle fingers over the greenery, and carefully stepped around the flowers.

**_#2 Waltz: _**

Their relationship was a three-step dance of advance, battle, retreat, flowing smoother and subtler than any waltz they could perform, for all the grace in their bodies was less than all the depth in their hearts.

**_#3 Wishes: _**

Hiei wasted no time on wishes, butterflies, flowers and futility; when he decided that he wanted Kurama, and that the benefits outweighed the dangers, he went after him as single-mindedly as if he were yet another battle to be won.

**_#4 Wonder: _**

He wondered what would happen if they ever became true enemies, and discarded the possibility; Kurama was far too much of a control-freak to ever permit that to happen – still, he wanted to fight him someday, but he buried that dream deep.

**_#5 Worry: _**

He was going to get himself killed one day, take one too many risks, and every time Kurama stepped out to fight with that particular look in his eyes, the one that spoke of darkness and death and bleak indifference to both, was another time Hiei's breath would stop dead

**_#6 Whimsy: _**

When he learned that they were together, Yomi warned Hiei with a suspiciously malicious smirk to watch out for Kurama's mood swings; when one bout of whimsy ended with Hiei waking up with bright green hair (to match his skin, Kurama said with a moderately deranged grin), he gained a new level of sympathy for the dignified Yomi.

**_#7 Waste: _**

He regarded the smear of chocolate on Kurama's cheek as an inexcusable waste of perfectly good food and remedied the situation immediately – much to the redhead's delight.

**_#8 Whiskey and rum: _**

Hiei sniffed disdainfully at the liquor and announced that it would take far more than that to make him drunk; Kurama just smiled and let Yusuke find out for himself.

**_#9 War: _**

'Only Yusuke,' Kurama commented, 'could convert a world war into a spectator event that's revolutionised the economy,' and Hiei almost laughed, for a moment forgetting the private war that was raging between the two of them.

**_#10 Weddings: _**

'Just think, Hiei…in a few years, we'll have little human-koorime mixes running about, with Kuwabara's hair and Yukina's eyes, all calling you Uncle Hiei!'

'……I think I'm going to be sick.'

**_#11 Birthday: _**

Kurama had lost his birthday long ago, just another date in the millennia, so he relished his new human birthday all the more, for what it represented to him; and hearing Hiei (hesitantly, sweetly, with a glare that forbade him to comment, ever, on what he was about to do, unless he wanted a serious amount of pain) sing him the birthday song was the best present he could have had.

**_#12 Blessing: _**

It was a blessing to be surrounded by the quiet of Kurama's presence, gentle enfolding warmth, fingers in his hair, secure for once.

**_#13 Bias: _**

Hiei found it ironic that Koenma's bias against youkai led him to make Kurama the liaison for the two of them, when Hiei would have been far less of a threat.

**_#14 Burning: _**

He had wanted to see his people burning in his fires, to exact horrible revenge for himself, for his mother, for the life he could have had, but of late he had found that burning desire fading; when he mentioned that to Kurama, and asked what it was, he replied, 'The beginning of wisdom.'

**_#15 Breathing: _**

Fighting came as naturally to Hiei as breathing, and it was a long time before Kurama could touch him while he slept without risking serious injury.

**_#16 Breaking: _**

Every time Kurama held him made breaking away harder; every time Kurama held him he struggled even harder to do so.

**_#17 Belief: _**

It was a horrible thing to have a clear and definite idea of what life was, of what his destiny was and how he was going to achieve it, and have an entirely random factor barge in and change everything.

**_#18 Balloon: _**

'Man, he's totally whipped,' Yusuke snickered as he saw Hiei pinning up balloons and streamers for a party with a mildly bemused expression mere minutes after loudly telling Kurama that he would rather go to hell first. ****

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**_#19 Balcony: _**

He stood on the balcony of his luxurious rooms at the tournament, watching Hiei train fiercely for his fight against Mukuro, and was more than ever aware that he had no right to join him there, not anymore.

**_#20 Bane: _**

Loss of control was the bane of Kurama's existence, and his emotions when it came to Hiei threw him more deeply off-balance than he'd ever been before.

**_#21 Quiet: _**

Kurama had sharp ears, fox ears, and even on the clear, hot nights when Hiei refused to sleep inside Kurama's room, taking advantage of the weather to spend the night on the tree outside his friend's room, he could hear the faint rhythm of his breathing, oddly reassuring.

**_#22 Quirks: _**

To everyone who knew him, Kurama seemed an unpredictable creature; but Hiei knew his quirks, his little routines, his habits, and he cherished how matter-of-factly Kurama revealed those potentially fatal weaknesses to him.

**_#23 Question: _**

There were some things about each other that they simply didn't question; Hiei never asked Kurama why his house was always open to him, and Kurama never asked him why he was the only one whose aid was ever accepted.

**_#24 Quarrel: _**

Hiei and Kurama's fights, Yusuke realised, were almost entirely nonverbal, incredibly convoluted and containing more bad blood than most wars he had read of; like everyone else who was sensitive enough to pick up the difference between their normal quarrels and the ones that contained real venom, he stayed well out of their way until they resolved their differences.

**_#25 Quitting: _**

'Quit being an idiot and go talk to him,' Mukuro snapped after one too many explosions of temper had left her soldiers terrified.

**_#26 Jump: _**

Kurama took great pleasure in making them all jump with his silent appearances, and Hiei took great pleasure in never allowing him the satisfaction.

****

**_#27 Jester: _**

It was endlessly amusing to watch Kuwabara's jokes go over Hiei's head (and vice versa), and to needle them into confrontation after confrontation; Kurama, being the sadistic type, ensured it happened as often as possible.

**_#28 Jousting: _**

Hiei knew battle, and Kurama knew play, and their courtship was a melding of the two; he might have suspected Kurama of toying with him, but he knew how seriously the kitsune took his games, and was content to let them both win.

**_#29 Jewel: _**

He was a rare prize, Kurama decided, and the day he decided that was the day his innately acquisitive nature began plotting ways to steal this rarest jewel of all.

**_#30 Just: _**

'Just sit down and let me do this for once,' Hiei said wearily, and for a wonder Kurama sat down, limp and mute with exhaustion, and let him dress the wounds Karasu had left on him; the acquiescence left Hiei even more worried than any resistance could have.

**_#31 Smirk: _**

Kurama's smirks were characteristically subtle; just folded hands, a tilt of the head, a sparkle in the eyes and a twist to the hip – nothing anyone else noticed, but Hiei knew a smirk when he saw one, being something of an expert in that area.

**_#32 Sorrow: _**

Every time Hiei vanished from his life, it hurt a little more, and Kurama had never been one to relish sorrow.

**_#33 Stupidity: _**

'Wait, wha, huh, you mean, like, _together_, together?' was a neat summary of Kuwabara and Yusuke's response to Kurama's quiet revelation, and out of respect for his friends' fragile dignity, he refrained from laughing until they were out of sight.

**_#34 Serenade: _**

'I'm not going to bring you flowers or serenade you just because you're pissed,' Hiei snarled in the middle of a fight, and the ridiculous mental image that provoked startled Kurama out of his anger and into gales of laughter.

**_#35 Sarcasm: _**

Hiei's acid sarcasm had reassured Kurama in the first days of their friendship – it was the only evidence he had that the lonely and scarred youkai he was steadily growing fond of even remembered how to laugh, to live.

**_#36 Sordid: _**

They did their best, unconsciously, to shield Yusuke from the sordid truths of the Makai, as if by preserving his innocence they could regain their own.

**_#37 Soliloquy: _**

Kurama explained himself to everyone with entirely too much drama and all the flair and mystery of an actor on the stage, but he let Hiei figure things out for himself; thus letting the jaganshi know Kurama held him in sufficient esteem as to trust him to keep up with him.

**_#38 Sojourn: _**

Each trip to the Makai made Kurama long that much more for the freedom and thrill of his days as Youko, and there was a direct connection to his return to the human world and how reckless he became for weeks after – Hiei made it a point to stay until Kurama was back to being as normal as he could be, if only to ensure that the idiot was alive for there to be a next time.

**_#39 Share: _**

Hiei arrived horribly late for one of Kurama's birthdays, bloody and wounded; after Kurama spent an hour cleaning him up, they sat on the floor of his living room, amidst the remains of a boisterous party, and Kurama smiled weakly and produced Hiei's share of cake.

**_#40 Solitary: _**

They were both solitary beings, one by choice and the other by circumstances, and it was convenient for them to occasionally be alone, even when they were together.

**_#41 Nowhere: _**

'No one belongs anywhere by default,' Kurama said sternly, 'everyone belongs nowhere if that is all they are worth…never doubt that you've more than earned your place at my side.'

**_#42 Neutral: _**

Kurama had a tendency to be absolutely neutral and unreadable on things that mattered intensely to Hiei; his lack of reaction, his deceptive passivity, enraged him as often as it saddened him.

**_#43 Nuance: _**

Yusuke once accused Kurama of concealing how good his eyes were after seeing him spar seamlessly with Hiei, each movement anticipated; Kurama gave him a surprised look and said that Yusuke definitely had better eyesight than he did – though Yusuke could barely follow Hiei's movements – and it left him wondering how well Kurama knew Hiei, to be able to predict every nuance of his complex strategies.

**_#44 Near: _**

Hiei found it impossible to sneak up on Kurama, no matter how well he shielded his youki or how low Kurama's energy was at the moment – it was years before the fox spirit confessed (with a grin) that he used his sensitive nose to know when Hiei was near.

**_#45 Natural: _**

They finished each other's sentences quite naturally, and there was an air of easy comfort in the way they instinctively adjusted to each other's presence and movements, although Yusuke, whose home had been a succession of loser boyfriends and a neglectful mother, could never have recognised it for the marriage that Keiko always referred to it as.

**_#46 Horizon: _**

Kurama was always chasing the horizon, seeking the unattainable, relishing challenges, manipulator and gamemaster by nature; it was natural for him to see those things in Hiei, and that provided the initial attraction.

**_#47 Valiant: _**

Hiei fiercely denied it, but he had valour, courage, honour, a gritty determination against the odds, relentless drive and bone-deep loyalty – they were qualities Kurama admired greatly, and it awed him somewhat that Hiei had hung on to them despite his painful past.

**_#48 Virtuous: _**

Kurama's virtuous-human act would have amused Hiei if he hadn't tried to trick him with it; he could tolerate hypocrisy, but not underestimation.

**_#49 Victory: _**

Kurama loathed Hiei's matched belts, which represented a major obstacle to the efficient one-handed stripping of a jaganshi, and regarded each set he conveniently 'lost' as a minor victory.

**_#50 Defeat: _**

Not, of course, that Hiei admitted defeat, and the Battle of the Belts became yet another game between them.


	3. Chapter 3

**_#1 Motion: _**

In his fox form, Kurama's ears were never still, flicking and twitching in constant, nervous motion; tickling them with a blade of grass produced a most satisfactory yelp, so Hiei did it as often as possible.

**_#2 Cool: _**

For someone with Hiei's body temperature, the feel of the silk bedsheets Kurama adored was more cold than cool, and he usually waited until Kurama had warmed them a little before he joined him; at any rate, that was the excuse he gave for sitting by the bed and watching Kurama sleep.

**_#3 Young: _**

It was easy for Yusuke to think his companions as being of his own age most of the time, but when he saw reckless malevolence glitter in Kurama's eyes, or dead hopelessness in Hiei's, he sensed an age to them that he had not even begun to fathom.

**_#4 Last: _**

Kurama had had so many lovers over so many centuries that he couldn't remember who his first had been, but as he held Hiei, still shaking from the aftermath, he resolved that this one would be his last.

**_#5 Wrong: _**

'It's not as if you care for me,' Kurama said bluntly the night before the finals, when Hiei tried to persuade him to fight Ani Toguro instead of Karasu, 'isn't that what you told me yourself?' – and Hiei, constrained by the remnants of his pride, could not bring himself to say that Kurama was wrong.

**_#6 Gentle: _**

Hiei was harsh, angry and in more pain than he admitted to; the only times he allowed himself to be gentle around anyone, even Kurama, was when he was tending his wounds – at that time, he resembled his sister much more than he cared to.

**_#7 One: _**

It took one minute for their relationship to change, for Kurama to confess – that one minute was all it took, but they felt the consequences for years of adjustment to this new truth.

**_#8 Thousand: _**

He had lived a thousand years, years where he had hunted restlessly for something he had not quite defined to himself, and to find so much – a mother's devotion, a friend's loyalty, a colleague's respect, a partner's love – within so short a space of time was dazzling and dizzying.

**_#9 King: _**

'If you're the king of thieves, what does that make me, I wonder,' Hiei mused in one of his rare lighthearted moments, and Kurama retorted, 'Consort or competition, you decide.'

**_#10 Learn: _**

'How do you feel?' Hiei asked the first time Kurama returned to human form after testing Suzuki's potion; Kurama looked at him with eyes full of darkness and fury, flexed his fingers and replied simply, 'Fragile,' and Hiei secretly prayed that he would never have to learn what that loss of strength felt like.

**_#11 Blur: _**

Hiei often relied on speed to settle his battles, turning himself into a dangerous flickering blur that ended lives before he was even seen; it amazed him that Kurama was able to do a similar thing with his mind, to misdirect and guide and blur the edges of thoughts until his opponents did exactly what he wished them to.

**_#12 Wait: _**

Kurama was firm in his resolution to remain in the human world as long as Shiori was alive, and Hiei let it be; Kurama wasn't the only one who knew the meaning of patience.

**_#13 Change: _**

The first time Hiei asked Kurama to change Makai currency to human for him, it left the redhead puzzled; but when he found the elegant set of bowls to arrange flowers in that a mysterious someone had left on his doorstep, he laughed and understood.

**_#14 Command: _**

Sometimes, on assignments, there were traps that only Hiei's jagan could see, webs and wards invisible to Kurama's eyes, and they worked as a team, Kurama obeying every command, replicating each movement, no matter how infinitesimal, with a precision that left Hiei awed and proud to call him a partner.

**_#15 Hold: _**

Hiei had a tendency to lose his head in battle, to let his enemies goad him into rashness, to let anger and emotion determine his strategy; it was far too late, he was already dying next to Shigure before he realised that he had grown so used to having Kurama there to advise him quietly and hold him back and watch over him that in his absence, some essential part of him became incapacitated.

**_#16 Believe: _**

They would have killed for each other, but they would have died for Yusuke, and this was why: Hiei – who had had no guide, no hero, no brother – needed to believe, and Kurama – who had never been trusted, never had the pleasure of an uncomplicated friendship – wanted to be believed in.

**_#17 Vision: _**

The jagan was a creature of malice at times, casting him into ugly visions that were unholy offspring of half-remembered past and dreaded future, and waking provided little relief; that was usually when he dragged Kurama out of slumber and threatened him into providing some sort of distraction.

**_#18 Attention: _**

Hiei was glad the Dark Tournament organisers hadn't thought of staging multiple fights, because if they had, he would certainly have died from paying too much attention to Kurama's fights and not enough to his own.

**_#19 Soul: _**

Kurama's soul was the strangest his jagan had scanned; contrasting colours, irreconcilable illogic and sharp incongruous edges all packed into a larger space than any one soul had a right to use, bright and hard and cold – it studied him even without Hiei consciously directing it, as puzzled by him as Hiei was.

**_#20 Picture: _**

'It's very hard to picture that guy ever being as nasty as they say he is,' Yusuke whispered thoughtfully to Hiei, watching Kurama absently freshen the dying plants in a florist's window as they passed it; 'Only because you've never stood between him and something he wanted,' Hiei replied bitterly.

**_#21 Fool: _**

Kurama fooled everyone he met, effortlessly and deliberately; until the very moment his sword stabbed through Kurama and hotstickyred youkai blood blinded him, Hiei had believed himself an exception.

**_#22 Mad: _**

'This is madness,' Hiei said hoarsely when Kurama asked him bluntly whether he wanted to have a relationship with him, and the kitsune grinned and said, 'What, has it taken you so long to understand that?'

**_#23 Child: _**

Some part of Hiei was relieved when Kurama grew into his teens – that knowing, pitiless, mocking look did not belong in the eyes of a child, and even one who had had a childhood like Hiei's could be unsettled by it.

**_#24 Now: _**

Kurama was an expert at discarding the past, living moment to moment and conquering his fears and pain and moving past them – it was the only skill of his that Hiei truly envied.

**_#25 Shadow: _**

Kurama enjoyed clubbing, and Hiei joined him sometimes, primarily because when he shadowed Kurama, it was easier to glare others away from him.

**_#26 Goodbye: _**

He tried to give his teargem to Yukina through Kurama, a symbol of his disassociation with the human world and all who lived in it; but Kurama, always subtler, refused the gem, and Hiei knew no other way to say goodbye to him without having to reveal what he was bidding farewell to.

**_#27 Hide: _**

They traded secret for secret, measured to be equal, until there was nothing to hide – which, to them, meant simply that they had said all they wished to say, which was not all they could, but such things were rarely allowed.

**_#28 Fortune: _**

Kurama was Fortune's favourite son, Hiei thought, displaying a remarkable ability to circumvent certain disaster and dodge around apparently inevitable death; when he asked, Kurama simply said that he didn't believe in luck.

**_#29 Safe: _**

The first time Hiei realised he was attracted to Kurama was when he was breaking into a safe in search of information on the Reikai vaults; watching skilled, slender fingers work locks and cast spells deftly, and shivering as he imagined those fingers on him.

**_#30 Ghost: _**

Hiei had taken to shadowing him recently, flitting ghostlike from tree to tree as Kurama went about his daily life; he didn't know whether to be outraged by the idea that Hiei thought he could hide from him, or flattered by his constant presence.

**_#31 Book: _**

Hiei stopped sneering at the uselessness of humans as much after Kurama began to read out the epics to him, caught by the writing and characters as nothing else that was human had ever fascinated him.

**_#32 Eye: _**

Kurama's expressions were unreadable, even to Hiei's jagan; but his tail was unfortunately expressive, once Hiei learned how to interpret it.

**_#33 Never: _**

The Makai used television for spying, not entertainment, and Hiei, who had never come across the concept of serials, didn't know whether to be amused or appalled when he discovered Kurama's penchant for cheesy sci-fi shows.

**_#34 Sing: _**

Kurama's whip made a peculiar singing sound as it sliced through the air, and to Hiei, whose perception of deadliness and beauty was inextricably tangled, it seemed the sweetest sound of all.

**_#35 Sudden: _**

Hiei was and would always be faster than Kurama could be – faster, even, than he could ever see – and he frequently found himself flat on the ground with an armful of jaganshi before he even realised he was off his feet.

**_#36 Stop: _**

Kurama had an almost supernatural ability to divorce himself from his emotions, and he had trained himself out of love before – it was strange to be in that situation once again, but not want to stop.

**_#37 Time: _**

Hiei, who was a youkai, had no idea of the value of time outside a fight; Kurama, who had become more human than he wished, knew how precious every second together was.

**_#38 Wash: _**

One teargem gone, lost in the wash of the river; one life gone, lost in the arc of a blade – one gem returned, found in the hands of one not quite a mother; one life returned, found in the arms of one much more than a friend.

**_#39 Torn: _**

Kurama had always been torn between opposites – red and white, youkai and human, ruthless and compassionate – it seemed appropriate that he be torn between two very opposite affections as well.

**_#40 History: _**

The only time Hiei asked Kurama about his past with Yomi, the redhead quirked an eyebrow and asked him if he was ready yet to speak about his childhood, silencing him effectively.

**_#41 Power: _**

Hiei had always been obsessed with gaining more power, becoming more powerful; it took a cynical but wise friend to teach him the difference between power and strength.

**_#42 Bother: _**

'Don't bother,' Hiei said indifferently the first time he was awake when Kurama started to heal him; but he remained still while he was doing so, and looked puzzled when the kitsune smiled at him after he finished.

**_#43 God: _**

They were faithless creatures, fighting fiercely against fate, and they had, more than once, pitted themselves against gods and won; it came as a surprise when they found themselves capable of sharing that solitude, that power.

**_#44 Wall: _**

He really should have known better; every wall Hiei threw up, every defense that slammed shut in Kurama's face, only made him burn with even greater curiosity to discover what lay behind all of them, where openness might have bored him enough to desist.

**_#45 Naked: _**

From his obvious reluctance to be even a little naked around others, Hiei had assumed that Kurama was modest to a fault, and was pleasantly surprised to learn that his modesty was entirely conditional.

**_#46 Drive: _**

'I don't see the point in this,' Hiei grumbled as he strapped his seatbelt on, 'I could run and get there faster than you…' but though he fidgeted restlessly the entire time, he spent the seven-hour drive next to Kurama.

**_#47 Harm: _**

Hiei had never felt the desire to protect anyone, and his deep love for Yukina had caught him horribly off-guard; but it was good in a way, because when he realised that he wanted to protect Kurama and keep him from harm even though he was perfectly capable of surviving anything life threw at him, he could name the emotion, to himself at least.

**_#48 Precious: _**

There was something odd about the way Kurama looked at him, touched him, talked to him – odd, different from the reluctant friendship he saw in Kuwabara or the deep affection and respect in Yusuke – and it was probably, Hiei realised, a new thing because he had never been precious to anyone before.

**_#49 Hunger: _**

There were times he was truly thankful for Hiei's height; it let him watch the jaganshi as they walked together, and gave him ample warning so that he could look away before Hiei looked up and wondered why there was such hunger in his eyes.

**_#50 Need: _**

He didn't doubt Kurama's love, but the kitsune could be so frighteningly self-contained that Hiei wondered whether Kurama ever needed him as desperately as he did Kurama; asking, in his customary blunt way, tightened the corners of those pretty green eyes and hardened the line of his mouth, and gave him no reply at all, and in apparent denial he found the true answer.

A/N: re #11: Blur: Think Kuromomotaro for Hiei and Amanuma for Kurama. See what I mean? And I forgot to post this in the previous chapter, but please tell me your favourites!


	4. Chapter 4

**_#1 Comfort: _**

Comfort was an alien word to Hiei, who viewed it as weakness; he was openly contemptuous of Kurama's sybaritic nature, but not nearly as much as Kurama was of his habits; he saw Hiei's fondness for roughing it as masochism.

**_#2 Kiss: _**

Hiei was no fool, he knew exactly what it meant when Kurama kissed him and what it meant, the way he looked at him, but it was easier to pretend and not have to face it.

**_#3 Soft: _**

Many expected Kurama's hands to be soft, and they were well cared for, as the weapons and tools they were – but it was only Hiei, who had had the privilege of clasping them, who knew of the thin lines of scars and faint calluses from holding his whip.

**_#4 Pain: _**

Hiei had an almost infinite tolerance for pain, could take the worst blows without ever flinching, could cold-bloodedly stab himself to prove a point – and yet the simplest of affections could undo him completely.

**_#5 Potatoes: _**

'If a mere potato can survive a winter,' Kurama said wryly, watching Hiei disappear into the distance yet again, 'I suppose I can hang on until you stop freezing your heart.'

**_#6 Rain: _**

Rain represented absolute vulnerability to him, the negation of his fire powers, and using Kurama's room as a shelter meant more to him than Kurama thought it did.

**_#7 Chocolate: _**

'If they ever hear about this, I'll kill you,' Hiei warned as he unwrapped the bar, and Kurama nodded dutifully and tried not to grin.

**_#8 Happiness: _**

He had been denied it so long that he didn't know what it was anymore, so accepting it was easy – until he realised what this strange new emotion was, and immediately became terrified of losing it.

**_#9 Telephone: _**

He had no idea how Kurama had managed to persuade his very human cellphone to tune in to Makai technology, but being able to converse even when he was in Alaric was good.

**_#10 Ears: _**

Kurama had very sensitive ears in either form, and Hiei enjoyed running a light fingertip along the human's ears and provoking a ticklish shudder as much as he relished the low purr-growl scratching through the youko's thick fur produced.

**_#11 Name: _**

'Tell me your name,' he said, 'I'll be sure to remember it.'

**_#12 Sensual: _**

Everything about Kurama was sensual to Hiei – the way he walked, the way he killed, the way he made love were equally beautiful to him.

**_#13 Death: _**

He felt it clearly, the brief moment when Hiei's heart stopped beating, felt it a world away; and his own heart seemed to stall in tandem until that indefinable trace of his presence that wrapped around Kurama's soul returned.

**_#14 Sex: _**

Sex was something Hiei had shunned as unnecessary attachment, an act that gave someone entirely too much power over him; he consented to it, finally, when he realised that Kurama now controlled that attachment and that power without even touching him.

**_#15 Touch: _**

Kurama wore white to emphasise his detachment, to warn that he could never be touched, never grasped, never understood – and he wore it with the full knowledge that it would only make him all the more desirable.

**_#16 Weakness: _**

He viewed Kurama's love for his mother, for his teammates, as weakness – and before he knew it, he, too, had succumbed to the same disease, and found to his surprise that he was stronger for it.

**_#17 Tears: _**

Hiei's tears did not form teargems as Yukina's did; the inner heat of his body did not permit such a waste of liquid, and when he cried, harsh racking sobs shook him, but his eyes remained clear and dry – it would have been easier, Kurama thought, had the opposite been true.

**_#18 Speed: _**

The speed of Hiei's reactions far exceeded Kurama's, and in battle, it was not uncommon for Hiei to flicker between the winding arcs of his whip and eliminate an opponent who was distracted by Kurama's weapon.

**_#19 Wind: _**

Kurama never realised why Hiei felt the need to wrap himself up so warmly all the time until the day Hiei lifted him effortlessly in his arms as he ran at top speed, and he felt the wind sting and rip at the skin of his face and neck; and the sudden relief as Hiei tucked his scarf around him, muttering about stupid youkos.

**_#20 Freedom: _**

Kurama was fiercely independent, and possessiveness from Hiei could leave him furious and cold for weeks – it implied that he belonged _to _rather than _with_, and he could never consent to being trapped even in words.

**_#21 Life: _**

Despite his apparent serenity and disregard for the odds that bordered on lunacy, there was no one else Hiei knew who lived life as intensely and delightedly as Kurama did.

**_#22 Jealousy: _**

Hiei found it strange that Kurama was never jealous of his closeness to Yusuke or Mukuro, despite being territorial in the extreme when it came to threats to his life; when he asked, Kurama blinked, taken aback, and said that it had never occurred to him to doubt that he was different, and he was surprised it had occurred to Hiei to doubt Kurama's trust in him.

**_#23 Hands: _**

Whenever Kurama folded his hands and smiled angelically, it was a sure sign he was getting really, really pissed off.

**_#24 Taste: _**

'I (hic) am never (hic) letting you m-(hic)-ake me curry (hic) again, you sadistic (hic) freak!'

**_#25 Devotion: _**

Devotion was the word that came to Hiei's mind when he saw Kurama with his mother, and a small, bitter part of him wondered if he would ever mean that much to him.

**_#26 Forever: _**

'I'm not believing a word you say,' Hiei said, 'you're not good at promises,' and Kurama retreated, knowing he was right.

**_#27 Blood: _**

Kurama's blood seemed to stick to him, and as he huddled alone in the Reikai cell, as far away from the excruciating pain of the wards surrounding his prison as he could get, he scrubbed violently and futilely at the ghost of that blood on his face, his hands.

**_#28 Sickness: _**

Smirk: 'Say ahhh, it's good for you…'

Glower: 'How good can it be, it's purple and bubbling!'

**_#29 Melody: _**

Hiei hummed unconsciously when he was enjoying afterglow, and Kurama listened, never daring to tell him how melodious his voice was for fear that he would restrain himself out of embarrassment.

**_#30 Star: _**

During one fight, Hiei accused Kurama of acting like the star of his own show, a drama queen; Kurama retorted that at least he didn't feel the need to prove his masculinity by shedding his clothing on the slimmest pretext, and had the pleasure of seeing Hiei gape.

**_#31 Home: _**

Kurama had spent so long training himself to be as human as possible, he was almost surprised when he kissed Hiei for the first time, and found that that indefinable scent of the Makai – and Hiei – made him homesick.

**_#32 Confusion: _**

'Erm…hey, Urameshi, can you please, please, please explain why it is that Kurama and Hiei are making out on the porch?'

**_#33 Fear: _**

Hiei knew the feeling of fear _of_ as intimately as he knew anything, but fear _for _was a thing that he had no way of resisting.

**_#34 Lightning/Thunder: _**

As a weathervane, Hiei was even more reliable than the lightning and thunder flickering and booming in the sky; years of avoiding the rain had honed his instincts, and Kurama always brought in the laundry when he came rapping at his window.

**_#35 Bonds: _**

More than anything, Kurama hated being trapped, loathed and feared it with an animal's instinct; how strange, that the one bond that had developed so naturally he barely realised its existence would come to mean more to him than freeing himself from it.

**_#36 Market: _**

Hiei trailed behind him when he went grocery shopping on weekends, glowered at the racks, snarled at the people and was irritated by the loud traffic – but he always accompanied him, and for that Kurama was grateful.

**_#37 Technology: _**

Hiei was used to Makai technology, which was worlds different from human machinery, but he proved surprisingly adaptable, and Kurama despaired of ever weaning him off arcade games.

**_#38 Gift: _**

Kurama had a gift for aggravating him, forcing him to respond (even if it was negative) and quietly pulling him out of his apathy with anger when he could not do it with love.

**_#39 Smile: _**

If there was one thing about Kurama that never failed to infuriate Hiei, it was his smile; that gentle, tranquil smile that said that he knew more than Hiei did, and was only waiting for him to catch up.

**_#40 Innocence: _**

When Hiei, who had never lost anyone he loved to death, claimed that he was unafraid of it, Kurama smiled to himself and prayed that innocence would last a while longer.

**_#41 Completion: _**

Hiei had a stubborn streak in him that didn't permit him to abandon a task before his completion, and when he accepted Kurama's tentative offer, that was all the reassurance he needed to know that Hiei would not allow himself to run away again.

**_#42 Clouds: _**

The clouds were different here, without the electricity that crackled constantly in the Makai skies, but it was peaceful, especially when he could rest his head on Kurama's lap and watch them cross the sky.

**_#43 Sky: _**

'I often wondered,' Kurama said quietly, 'whether the worlds are separated like planets, or if they are layered one on top of the other like the levels of the Makai; I used to look up at the sky and try to find home among all those stars, but I never did.'

**_#44 Heaven: _**

Heaven was less than appealing for them, since they knew exactly what it was like – mountains of paperwork, overworked ogres and hypocrisy…

**_#45 Hell: _**

And hell, Kurama said (and he knew from brief but vivid experience) was infinitely worse, and the simplest thing was to stay alive – and that, at least, they were both very good at.

**_#46 Sun: _**

Hiei almost never smiled, but the first time he smiled at Kurama, it was like the sunrise – warming, dawning, blossoming full of promise.

**_#47 Moon: _**

Kurama was moonlight, Hiei decided; cold and brilliant, red at the horizon and shading to silver at its peak, beautiful and untouchable and deceptive, but gentler and more healing than the harsh absolute light of the sun, allowing him the mercy of the shadows but seeing him nonetheless.

**_#48 Waves: _**

They walked along the waves in silence, relishing the water that swirled around their feet, and if Kurama noticed that Hiei warmed it slightly so that Kurama stopped shivering at each new impact, he said nothing.

**_#49 Hair: _**

This hair that lay tangled in his fingers like solid, cool blood was a deadly weapon, and it awed him that something so beautiful could conceal something so deadly – so like Kurama himself.

**_#50 Supernova: _**

'Together,' Kurama said simply, 'until the stars fall from the sky and the world ends,' and Hiei resolved privately to make it last longer than that.

A/N: so, favourites? puppy eyes. And sorry, I uploaded the wrong draft earlier, and didn't realise it until I had my attention drawn to it. Reposted. To those who've put this on alert - my sincere apologies for spamming up your inbox. Blossomwitch: I really am sorry, and I really didn't mean to. I hope you will forgive me.


	5. Chapter 5

**_#1 Ring: _**

Hiei brought his sword up, eyeing the ring of Reikai defense personnel closing in on him, sizing up his chances; he had just concluded that they were slim when he heard a low, familiar chuckle, and Kurama flipped neatly into the middle of the circle with him, back to back – 'Starting without me? How rude of you, Hiei,' he said, and everything was right again, and he smirked, anticipating victory.

**_#2 Hero: _**

Yusuke and Kuwabara were the heroes of the group, the shining warriors for truth and justice; Kurama never lifted a finger unless it furthered his own goals, and Hiei…would never admit to being less than utterly self-centred if it killed him.

**_#3 Memory: _**

When he first realised how frequently Kurama was worming himself into his thoughts, he blamed his memory, so crystal clear and perfect, recording every detail – later, he began wondering why he had been paying so much attention.

**_#4 Box: _**

Hiei was present when Kurama was filling out his forms for college, chuckled along with him when Kurama pondered what to write in the little box that asked him for his age, and reflected that this was the sort of thing that kept that little smile on Kurama's face.

**_#5 Run: _**

Hiei could run faster than Kurama could see – the first time Hiei slowed down to let him catch up, he was amazed at himself, for it had been a completely natural thing to do, despite never having done it before.

**_#6 Hurricane: _**

'You idiot,' Kurama half-shouted at a wet and shivering Hiei, even as he stripped him and dried him efficiently, 'Do you really think I'd refuse you my home just because we fought?'

**_#7 Wings: _**

Falling was the thing Hiei feared most, and that first instant when he fell out of the tunnel into the Makai was a moment of blinding overwhelming panic – and then there were vines, and Kurama, flying on butterfly-graceful wings, and he held on gratefully, and learned the difference between loss of control and trust.

**_#8 Cold: _**

Hiei was the one born of ice, but Kurama was the cold one; utterly ruthless and vindictive in a way Hiei could never summon up the egocentricity or cruelty to be.

**_#9 Red: _**

With the way Kurama's hair stood out like a beacon, Hiei was surprised the kitsune ever managed to avoid notice – and learned why every time he sneaked up on him without Hiei ever picking up a trace of his presence, jagan or no.

**_#10 Drink: _**

Youkai had infinitely higher alcohol tolerance than humans, and Kurama even more than most, and Hiei took great pleasure in making him drink when he was in human form, simply to see him act ridiculous.

**_#11 Midnight: _**

'You waited for me for so long?' Hiei asked as he stepped through the portal several hours late; Kurama arched an eyebrow, stood and extended a hand to him, letting him read the 'obviously' in his eyes.

**_#12 Temptation: _**

Youko was wicked temptation, a sensual apparition in perverse virgin white; Shuuichi was unconscious temptation, a splash of unworldly colour among drab human outlines – in either form, he was temptation, pure and simple, and even one with Hiei's strength of will could only resist so long.

**_#13 View: _**

Kurama found it ironic that he had wound up assisting the human-killing Yomi and Hiei Mukuro, considering their contrasting views on humans.

**_#14 Music: _**

Brought up by the dregs of society, he'd never had the chance to truly listen to music, and he spent the long hours when Kurama was at school or work lying on his bed and drinking in concert after concert; he hid the player before Kurama returned, but could never shake the suspicion that the fox knew anyway.

**_#15 Silk: _**

The angrier Kurama became, the silkier his voice got – it was fitting, Hiei thought, that the more beautiful he sounded the more deadly he was.

**_#16 Cover: _**

It was a novel sensation for Hiei to have Kurama cover his back; to not have to defend every side, to allow himself to focus on one opponent while someone else took care of another, to feel less at bay and cornered than he had all his life.

**_#17 Promise: _**

'Make no promises,' Kurama murmured, silencing Hiei with a finger, 'I know who you are, I know who I am, and saying that you'll always be with me means nothing, because either of us could die tomorrow.'

**_#18 Dream: _**

To Hiei, Kurama was dreamless sleep – blissful oblivion.

**_#19 Candle: _**

Hiei thought of everyone in terms of fire – Yusuke a firework, all bright explosions and erratic flight, Yukina a steady candle, shy but beautiful, Mukuro a beacon, something to aspire to – but he could attach no such label to Kurama, who was too much like himself to be truly understood.

**_#20 Talent: _**

Kurama had a talent for elegant destruction, and it disappointed Hiei that he used it so rarely; an enraged Kurama was a thing of frost and glitter, like diamonds.

**_#21 Silence: _**

Kurama was always silent in his true laughter, shaking with mirth, eyes sparkling with glee, covering his mouth with a hand, something both mocking and beautiful.

**_#22 Journey: _**

They were each on their individual journeys, one to growth and the other to identity, and circumstances threw them together and tore them apart with vicious impartiality; it was a pleasant surprise to discover that their destination was the same.

**_#23 Fire: _**

'No, Hiei, setting Kuwabara on fire does not constitue social service, and I'm _not _going back to jail for it.'

**_#24 Strength: _**

Hiei had always been secure in the belief that he could best Kurama in battle, but watching the power sizzling around him in his fox form – and more, the sheer conviction of his own superiority in his eyes, for Kurama fooled everyone but not himself – left him just a little bit unsure.

**_#25 Mask: _**

Kurama was a creature of masks and illusions, deceptions and truths layered and merging seamlessly, and he fascinated Hiei – which drew him to Kurama more than any conscious seduction he could have planned.

**_#26 Ice: _**

When Hiei wanted to retreat from something, he distanced himself physically, but Kurama gave him no such consideration, staying with him but locking himself away, voice ice-rimmed and freezing – and in his eyes, _nothing_, like the dead.

**_#27 Fall: _**

Every blow Kurama took from Bakken made Yusuke and Hiei flinch, and yet the redhead remained upright; he could only wonder at the strength of will that, even unconscious, would not let him fall and fail.

**_#28 Forgotten: _**

Hiei claimed to have forgotten most of his childhood – it was a blatant lie, because they both knew he was a mnemonic, but Kurama had his own secrets, and didn't pry.

**_#29 Dance: _**

Kurama turned battle into a dance, and Hiei never sparred hand-to-hand to him, because he inevitably lost, captured by the sheer grace with which he moved; he never knew that Kurama always offered just so he could see that look in his eyes.

**_#30 Body: _**

Even though he was on the verge of collapse, Kurama insisted on carrying Hiei's limp unconscious form from the arena to the waiting room while they waited for the ring to be replaced, and he waited patiently in the room until Hiei woke up, passing up the chance to seize precious sleep and allow his body to heal – and Yusuke and Kuwabara, who both knew something of loyalty and love, knew not to interfere or question.

**_#31 Sacred: _**

The way Hiei fingered his mother's teargem was like a devotee touching a talisman, and every time he saw it Kurama seethed with rage at that unknown woman who had not had the courage to change her way of life for her children, who had taught Yukina loneliness and Hiei abandonment.

**_#32 Farewells: _**

Hiei never waited to bid Kurama farewell; which reassured Kurama more than anything, because the day either of them said goodbye would be the last time they spoke while living.

**_#33 World: _**

'I left my world to indulge your affection for that woman,' Hiei rasped, 'what more proof could you possibly want?'

**_#34 Formal: _**

There was an old-world quality to Kurama sometimes, an ancient, elegant formality that he could summon if he needed to; that, more than anything, reminded Hiei just how young he was in comparison.

**_#35 Fever: _**

Unleashing his dragon left him feeling dizzy and flushed, feverish; Hiei was taken aback when being around Kurama left him exactly the same way.

**_#36 Laugh: _**

Kurama mocked him at every opportunity, teased him ruthlessly and laughed at him in obscure ways; it would have offended him if he hadn't realised how few were allowed that intimacy.

**_#37 Lies: _**

'Why should I believe anything you tell me?' Hiei asked Kurama, and he replied simply, 'I am, at least, honest with myself.'

**_#38 Forever: _**

Unlike Hiei, Kurama had been in love before, and he understood even better how painful it was to have forever dangled before his eyes like a prize and snatched away by a whim; still, he agreed, and resolved not to become another Kuronue, or have Hiei be that for him.

**_#39 Overwhelmed: _**

It was heartbreaking to see someone who could endure a nearly infinite amount of punishment without even flinching, but who shattered, overwhelmed, at the slightest affection; that realisation had come to Yusuke first, and Kurama never forgave himself for it.

**_#40 Whisper: _**

A whisper of sound, a subtle displacement of air was all the warning Kurama usually got before being tackled by Hiei.

**_#41 Wait: _**

Every time he stripped off his shirt, whether in battle or at leisure, he waited for hot green eyes to watch him, and he was rarely disappointed.

**_#42 Talk: _**

Kurama rarely spoke in battle; his silence unnerved his opponents as much as his crazy tactics did, and unlike Hiei, he preferred to keep his methods a secret.

**_#43 Search: _**

Hiei was the kind who needed a quest, a purpose, whether it was a lost gem or a lost sister or a desire to become stronger, and when he achieved these things, he turned to yet another quest, the most dangerous and fulfilling of all.

**_#44 Hope: _**

He knew exactly why Kurama was stealing the Forlorn Hope, but unlike Yusuke, he respected Kurama too much to interfere with his choices – and perhaps, he thought later, had he respected him a little less, he might have been a better friend.

**_#45 Eclipse: _**

To Kurama, an eclipse symbolised the permanence of light, and to Hiei, the inevitable triumph of darkness.

**_#46 Gravity: _**

An accident of gravity convinced Kurama to remain in the human world; decades later, grieving over that dead woman's body, it took all the strength Hiei had to pull him away from her and let him heal in private.

**_#47 Highway: _**

Hiei flatly refused to join the other detectives on a road trip they had planned, saying it was pointless and boring, but on the third night, when they turned off the highway to the inn they had previously booked rooms in, he was glowering at them from the side of the road, and Kurama laughed and let him in.

**_#48 Unknown: _**

Kurama thought it was the fear of the unknown that made Hiei keep him at a distance for so long; in reality, Hiei did so because he knew exactly what he was afraid of.

**_#49 Lock: _**

The fifth time Kurama picked the lock of Hiei's apartments in Alaric, Mukuro irritably told Hiei to give the man a key already and stop embarrassing her security – and that was that.

**_#50 Breathe: _**

'I can't love,' Hiei spat, 'I can't even learn to,' and Kurama arched an eyebrow and replied, 'it's as easy as breathing.'

A/N: so that's the fifth of five. Thanks to everyone who reviewed. And if anyone wants to submit another fifty prompts they will be well-received. Oh, and favourites for this chapter?


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: remember I'd said I'd be open to new prompt sets? Well, the amazing, amazing Blossomwitch sent me one, and here they are. Enjoy. And more are welcome! 

**_1. Abstinence _**

He prided himself on his calmness and discipline, but really, if Yusuke teased him once more about being pissy because Hiei was in Alaric, he was _not _responsible for the consequences.

**_2. Advocate_**  
Hiei was a brilliant fighter, but he had no sense of tactics beyond himself; when he, Mukuro and Kurama discussed tactics for the purpose and organisation of defense forces on the borders, he fought them point for point until he realised that the policies they advocated were on a larger scale than he had had the chance to think on before.

**_3. Appreciate  
_**Kurama loved teasing Hiei, partly because he enjoyed aggravating him, but partly because he knew how much effort it took for Hiei to accept any kind of friendship or extend any intimacy towards anyone, and this was the simplest way to show that he appreciated him for it.

**_4. Bed head _**

Kurama's hair looked ridiculous in the morning; there were horrible tangles in it and the whole thing stood at funny angles on his head, and Hiei had to put up with him whining about how his youko hair was easier to manage every single day.

**_5. Breakup _**

Well, Hiei thought, getting him jailed was a rather efficient way of saying goodbye.

**_6. Cathedral_**  
It was hushed, silent, peaceful here – quite the wrong place to meet an informant, all things considered, but Kurama had slipped into the shadows already, waiting for Hiei to finish his work, and mentioning such foolishness was unthinkable.

**_7. Cold_**  
'How nice of your friend to bring you chicken soup, dear,' Shiori said brightly, and Kurama bit his tongue in time to stop himself saying that it wasn't exactly chicken in there.

**_8. Currency _**

'I thought you were some sort of hot-shot thief; so why don't you have any money here?' Hiei demanded, and Kurama laughed and replied that he had enough in Makai currency to buy himself a small country, but things were different for humans, and it was hard for a pre-teen boy to fence gold without attracting attention. 

**_9. Debauched_**  
'This,' Hiei seethed, 'is the last time you ever drag me to one of that idiot's parties,' and Kurama found it hilarious how offended he sounded, and all over a little alcohol.

**_10. Desert _**

Mukuro watched her heir's face as he watched Kurama battle for his life, and wondered whether she should be insulted that he thought so little of her intelligence as to claim that he would not desert her for his friends. 

**_11. Distance  
_**They knew each other better than anyone else did, but they were careful to respect the need for distance; being together when one was in a foul mood almost always provoked an endless series of small bitter wars.

**_12. Dutiful _**

It always amused Kurama that Hiei fulfilled his duties around Alaric with such dedication after boasting for years that no one had the power to order him around.

**_13. Entropy  
_**It was almost idiotically romantic, the way something in him seemed to blossom and warm when he felt Hiei's presence nearing. 

**_14. Feral_**  
Sometimes, Hiei reminded him of nothing more than a feral animal – something gone wild and harsh and distrustful, but within which a desperate sort of hope and a pathetic trust still lingered, glimpsed briefly in red eyes before it was wilfully buried in the despair of centuries…

**_15. Generous _**

And so maybe he was a little more generous with his resources and his aid, and maybe he let him a little too close, but Kurama had been there himself – though jaded, not despairing, and cruel, not hopeful – and perhaps he could be the connection Hiei needed to return to his true self, as Shiori had been his. 

**_16. Genuine_**  
Nothing was real about Kurama, his smile was as calculated as his fighting; it took a long time for Hiei to trust that his affection for him was genuine.

**_17. Heart _**

As his human form grew older and more powerful, Kurama's heartbeat changed to the infinitely slow pace of a youkai, and it left Hiei strangely reassured; perhaps they weren't so different underneath it all.

**_18. Hunter  
_**Kurama had a hunter's instinct for knowing where Hiei was – especially when he needed to be found.

**_19. Inertia_**  
He knew it would take a tremendous effort to pull them out of the comfortable inertia of not-quite-friendship, and so his offer was blunt, comprehensive and unambiguous – and Hiei's wide eyes, he decided, were sufficient proof that he'd pushed them out of rest, at least; where they went now wasn't up to him anymore.

**_20. Instincts_**  
It went against both their instincts to trust, to need, to follow, and yet they found themselves capable of it.

**_21. Jade  
_**Kurama woke up one morning to find that little jade dancer he'd stolen from Alaric gone, and Hiei smirking, and he reflected woefully that perhaps he shouldn't have been teaching him so many tricks.

**_22. Judicious_**  
'We,' Yusuke said menacingly, grabbing his arm in an iron grip, 'are going to have a long talk about you and a certain fox we both know,' and Hiei began to wonder if running away after a fight was a judicious course of action if this was the kind of retaliation Kurama came up with.

**_23. Key_**  
'Here,' Hiei said irritably, 'Mukuro told me to give you a key already and stop embarrassing her security,' and Kurama smiled demurely and took it.

**_24. Match _**

Of course, he still broke in sometimes, just to keep himself amused, and because Mukuro was so much more satisfying to match wits with than Hiei, who simply understood.

**_25. Melody_**  
'WHAT THE BLOODY HELL IS THIS?!?' Hiei roared from the bedroom, and Kurama cringed as he realised that Hiei had probably discovered those music videos of them he'd downloaded.

**_26. Momentum_**  
To this day, Kurama wonders why the momentum of the Shadow Sword slowed ever so slightly before it cut through him, how conscious that was – and how conscious the decision to spare his life, when the slightest twist of Hiei's wrist would have ended everything.

**_27. Opium_**  
Kurama never used drugs, he never let himself lose control to that extent, and Hiei found it amusing that his apparently ideal lifestyle was fueled not by maturity or stability (as others believed) but by unadulterated (though not unnecessary) paranoia.

**_28. Patriot_**  
Hiei's fierce attachment to Mukuro and her kingdom left Kurama, who had never been a patriot or a vassal, both amused and awed.

**_29. Partake  
_**It was an unofficial decision that Hiei was the prime target for teasing in their little party (and it was an official decision that Kurama was Not To Be Made Fun Of if they knew what was Good For Them), and making him snap and snarl was their idea of group activities.

**_30. Quicksilver_**  
'You know me better than anyone,' Kurama told him often, but to Hiei, there would always be a quicksilver elusive quality to Kurama, the feel of moonlight, layers and subtleties he would never fully grasp.

**_31. Resentment_**  
At first, Kurama thought that it was his insistence on remaining as human as possible that Hiei resented – but it was the fact that he had something to protect so tightly, to hold so precious, that Hiei found so bitter.

**_32. Routine_**  
He had grown so accustomed to Hiei's presence that every time he glanced sideways and down towards crimson eyes to share a silent joke or find an answer and he wasn't there, it left something empty inside him.

**_33. Safety_**  
One night after a long and stressful hunt, Hiei told him roughly, 'Rest, I'll stay awake,' and Kurama nodded obediently and promptly fell asleep, even though he'd never slept in another's presence, not even as a fragile human baby, and didn't think to be surprised by this until the next morning.

**_34. Sanity _**

It often surprised Kurama that Hiei had adjusted to his circumstances, his life, as well as he had, and not become cruel or greedy; then again, Hiei was always more sane than he was.

**_35. Scarlet  
_**Kurama took one look at Hiei's new official uniform and burst out laughing; 'At least it's not pink, like that ghastly thing you used to wear…would you _shut up_?' Hiei snapped, but it was too late – his cheeks were already turning scarlet, and Kurama was hiccupping helplessly with glee.

**_36. School_**  
It was over eighty years now since Kurama had moved back to the Makai, but he still hadn't stopped reminding Hiei that he'd once been beaten soundly and independently by three boys who were still in school.

**_37. Scream_**  
'Oh, honestly,' Hiei said irritably, 'you just saw us kissing – there's no need to scream like a girl…' but Kuwabara and Yusuke apparently disagreed, if their expressions were anything to go by.

**_38. Seduce _**

Hiei had taken his shirt off again, and he was practicing his swordsmanship – blurring afterimages of his sword like lightning through the air, flexing muscle and fierce concentration, perfect grace, efficient deadliness, lethal precision, inviting posture – Kurama set his book down and began watching openly, and he didn't miss the small curve to Hiei's lips.

**_39. Singsong_**  
Yusuke didn't even get past the K-I-S-S-I-N-G bit before Hiei slugged him, and Kurama steepled his fingers under his chin and smiled, because he'd saved him the trouble of doing the same.

**_40. Sinister_**  
When Hiei idly asked Kurama what he wanted for his birthday, he saw the slow smooth sinister curl of his lips and nearly bolted, because Kurama looking like _that _was never good news.

**_41. Smoke_**  
He could feel his hopes going up in smoke as the electricity of Yusuke's reigun sizzled through him, and he damned Kurama for it.

**_42. Solstice_**  
'It's the longest night of the year; let's make full use of it,' Kurama said, grinning madly, and Hiei agreed completely.

**_43. Stillness  
_**Kurama moving around normally was fine – it was when he went absolutely still that he was most dangerous.

**_44. Strawberries _**

'…you're going to put that _where? ...No_, goddamn it!' 

**_45. Temper_**  
Over time, he found that his brash recklessness had been tempered somewhat by Kurama's natural caution – although Kurama always said it was old age sneaking up on him.

**_46. Terror _**

Youko Kurama, the terror of a world, the scourge of the rich and the fear of the poor, master thief and prominent politican, ruthless killer and cunning strategist, currently meekly shelling peas for a frail human woman…and Kurama wondered why Hiei was smirking at him.

**_47. Turn _**

Hiei could get away with calling Kurama names when none of the others would have dared, but only because Kurama knew how to listen, and how, in that voice, a gruff dismissal could turn so quickly into unstated concern, caring, affection.

**_48. Warmth  
_**Hiei was perfect for snuggling up against in cold weather, since he radiated heat like a fire; but he hated it when Kurama crawled into bed hours after he'd gone to sleep, complaining that the fox's feet were like ice-cubes.

**_49. Weather _**

Hiei had a deep sense of loyalty, a steady calm dependability beneath all his overconfident posturings that said: I am here, fair weather or foul, victory or defeat, life or death, by your side, always – and he found himself turning to that strength and constancy again and again, a blessed refuge from the endlessly shifting alliances that were all he felt safe in forming with the rest of the world. 

**_50. Yesterday _**

Their pasts were littered with betrayals and rejection, but there was only one thing to do, and that was to move forward, because yesterday was gone and tomorrow might find them dead; and if there was someone they knew would be walking by their side, and if there was someone at whose side they knew they would find a place, that was the only reassurance they had – or needed.

21: In-joke. It references other fics of mine. A lot of these sentences do, actually. 33: at no point in the show do we see Kurama asleep unless he's knocked out. Yusuke, Hiei, Kuwabara, yes. Never Kurama. 36: Kurama, Yusuke and Kaito. Hiei's not terribly smart at times, is he?


End file.
